TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - Designing effective alcohol warnings: consumer reactions to icons and health topics
JO  - American journal of preventive medicine
A1  - Grummon, Anna H.
A1  - Ruggles, Phoebe R.
A1  - Greenfield, Thomas K.
A1  - Hall, Marissa G.
SP  - 157
EP  - 166
VL  - 64
IS  - 2
N2  - INTRODUCTION: New warning labels for alcohol could reduce alcohol-related health harms. This study examined consumer responses to alcohol warnings with different designs. <br><br>METHODS: A national sample of 3,051 U.S. adults completed an online survey in August 2021. Participants were randomized to 1 of 4 warning topics (addiction, liver damage, early death, or colon cancer). Participants viewed 3 labels, presented in random order: 2 types of warning labels (text-only and icon) showing a newly developed warning message about their assigned topic and a text-only control label showing a neutral message. Participants rated each label on effectiveness at discouraging alcohol consumption (primary outcome) and attention (secondary outcome) using 1 to 5 Likert-type scales. Participants also rated warnings with different causal language variants (e.g., "increases risk of," "contributes to") and marker words (e.g., "WARNING," "SURGEON GENERAL WARNING"). <br><br>RESULTS: Both the text-only and icon warnings were perceived as more effective (Average Differential Effects [ADEs]=0.79 and 0.86, respectively) and more attention-grabbing (ADEs=0.43 and 0.69, respectively) than control labels (all ps<0.001). The icon warnings were rated as more effective and attention-grabbing than the text-only warnings (ADEs=0.07 and 0.27, respectively, both ps<0.001). Although all warning topics outperformed the control messages, warnings about addiction were rated as less effective and attention-grabbing than the other topics. A majority (60%) of participants selected "increases risk of" as the most discouraging causal variant and a plurality (47%) selected "SURGEON GENERAL WARNING" as the most discouraging marker word. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: New alcohol warnings could discourage alcohol consumption, especially if warnings include icons.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0749-3797
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2022.09.006
ID  - ref1
ER  -